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By Rashme Sehgal Filmmaker, wildlife conservationist and Green Oscar-winner Mike Pandey discusses his films on the horseshoe crab, whale shark and other endangered species
Filmmaker and conservationist Mike Pandey has documented endangered species such as whale sharks, vultures, elephants and, most recently, the horseshoe crab. In the course of his three-decade-long career as a documentary filmmaker, he has won over 200 awards including the prestigious Green Oscar, which he won thrice. Even so, he feels his films are not making a difference at the grassroots, because independent filmmakers struggle to find support, resources and audiences to view their work.  During the last five years, you have launched an active campaign to protect the horseshoe crab. Can you tell us more?
The horseshoe crab is the oldest existing species on our planet. It is 562 million years old. The only two countries where it survives today are the US and India. Unfortunately, 50 pairs of this crab are being smuggled out of India every single day. Horseshoe crabs, which used to be found in every corner of the country, now survive only in the Sunderbans region of West Bengal and Balasore in Orissa.
The government needs to step in and end this widespread decimation because the horseshoe crab is known to possess rare curative powers; it can even cure cancer. This was discovered by leading Indian scientists who found that extracts from the crab can reverse and sometimes cure cancer. As a take-off on this research, the Ministry of Environment and Forests has applied for nine patents to make sure the benefits of this research accrue to us. It would be a great pity if this whole body of research came to naught because there are no horseshoe crabs left on the ground. My film on the crab, called Timeless Traveller,looks at the whole issue of how they are being sold for as little as Rs 2 apiece. What was the Ministry of Environment and Forests’ response to the film?
There was no response. In fact, they have shown zero response to all my films. One would have expected the ministry to acquire them and then push for their screening on Doordarshan and other channels. But that is not the case. Several activist organisations, inspired by my film, have launched a campaign to end horseshoe crab exports. Didn’t you launch a similar campaign to save the elephant?
My film on the elephants, Vanishing Giants,shows how elephants are being slaughtered by poachers and by villagers living close to forest reserves. After Africa, India possesses the largest number of elephants in the wild. Unfortunately, their natural habitat has become endangered because our reserves and sanctuaries are shrinking. Take the example of the Rajaji Sanctuary near Haridwar; it has a railway line running through it. Speeding trains are known to have knocked down and killed a minimum of 15 elephants in the last five years. Surely officials in the environment ministry should have pressed for the re-routing of the track, or at least ensured that the trains proceeded slowly through the sanctuary? Nothing has happened. Elephants are being ploughed down month after month. I personally approached Laloo Prasad Yadav as Minister of Railways. I met Mulayam Singh Yadav and Narain Dutt Tewari. It has made no difference at all. Often, forest officials turn out to be as cruel as poachers. Some months ago, I released footage showing how forest officials had captured a baby elephant in the forests of Chhattisgarh. The animal was tortured to death by them. It forced the government to impose a ban on the hunting of elephants, but when ‘protectors’ become ‘predators’, who is going to take care of the animals? Your film on the whale shark put an end to the hunting of these creatures...
Yes, I consider that to be one of my biggest achievements. For one, when I started the project, ministry officials and even officials at the National Institute of Oceanography in Goa told me it was a wild goose chase. They insisted there were no whale sharks in India. But I was convinced they could be found along the Gujarat coast, because the whale shark is a warm-water creature. I first saw the whale shark as a 10-year-old boy, when I travelled by ship from Africa to Porbander. My film, titled Shores of Silence,took three years to make. I had to finance it myself so it was not an easy task. When I began shooting the film, whale shark meat was being sold along the Gujarat coast for as little as Rs 2 a kilo. It was horrifying. My film went on to win a Green Oscar and forced the government to impose a ban on the hunting of these sharks. Today, there are over 2,000 sharks along this coast. That is a great achievement. Again, there are only two countries where the whale shark is found: Australia has around 200 and India has a larger number. I keep returning to Gujarat to interact with local activists who are now keeping watch to see that these creatures are not poached by pharma and cosmetic corporate houses. You’ve also made a film on how vultures have disappeared from our landscape.
There is no place for vultures in present-day civilisation. People seem to forget that vultures, bacteria and flies are the greatest and most resilient scavengers that nature has made. India possesses over 500 million cattle; the vulture is nature’s way of ensuring that rotting carcasses are ‘taken care of’. The Ministry of Environment and Forests should have insisted on a ban on dialofenae, a chemical that has led to the elimination of this species. But they took no such step. This kind of wanton destruction is unforgivable. It is the same with our tigers. India’s tiger population is anything between 12 and 1,500. Just two years ago, the government was insisting we had around 5,000 tigers. They are not to be seen in our forests anymore. What kind of problems do you encounter as a documentary filmmaker?
Like the animals we shoot, we too are an endangered species. We finance our own movies, but as this business gets more expensive we have great difficulty raising the money. The film Shores of Silence took me three years to shoot and I had to operate on a shoestring budget. We need to constantly upgrade our equipment and, most important, we need a platform to show our films. Most Indian news channels do not air our documentaries. The only broadcaster willing to show them is Doordarshan. But it does so at the unearthly time of 11 pm at night. We are a nation that goes to sleep by 10 pm. So who is going to stay awake and watch our films? Good information is worthless if it does not reach the public.
(Rashme Sehgal is a writer and journalist based in Delhi) InfoChange News & Features, March 2006
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